Windows Mail works perfectly well for most users, but live mail looks promising too. See this:

http://ask-leo.com/whats_the_difference_between_windows_mail_windows_live_mail_windows_live_hotmail_and_msn_hotmail.html

I use windows Live mail and would recommend it over window mail.I run it on both my Vista machinge and XP machine. It is just like Outlook Express with a bunch more bells and whistles.

One ability of live mail is if you have multiple email accounts you can have them shown on the main page and then can select them as necessary. Also works well to organize newgroups and contacts as well.

Is Windows Live Mail better than Thunderbird?

I actually prefer using Mozilla's Thunderbird over Windows Mail. Based on davet50's description of Windows Live Mail it sounds as though it is very similar to Thunderbird. One complaint that I have about Thunderbird is that it doesn't allow you to keep messages as unread once you have clicked on them despite the fact that the options settings are pretty much identical to Windows Mail/Outlook Express. I haven't yet been able to find a fix for that at this point in time although there is probably one out there somewhere. Other than that I have been much happier with Tbird than any of the MS products. I especially like the way that a notification pops up each time mail is received that lists the new messages, not just the little envelope down on the taskbar which is also used. This is a feature that I hadn't seen in OE or WM.

One difference to note between Windows Mail and Thunderbird is the way in which messages are saved. Outlook Express (on Windows XP and before) stored all e-mail that you had in a folder as a single file for that folder (using a .dbx file) but in Windows Mail (on Vista) this was changed so that you can see each individual message in a folder when using Windows Explorer. Thunderbird uses a format that is more like Outlook Express than Windows Mail. To me it seems that having the messages stored individually, as Windows Mail does, might make it easier to contain a mail delivered virus than the method that uses one file for all of the messages so this is another, albeit very minor, feature of Tbird that I would like to see changed but the security of the program itself seems to be much better than that of the MS products.

There is practically no difference between Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail, but go with the latter if you have a Hotmail account and you want to access it from your email program like OE of old.

I read somewhere that Windows Live Mail is supposed to be the replacement for both Outlook Express and Windows Mail. Is it also going to be a replacement for Outlook at some point? Having all of these different names for similar programs gets to be confusing sometimes, or that may just be me. :emotion-42:

I doubt that it, Windows Live mail, will replace Outlook, which is part of MS Office on the PC.  PS Outlook is not a free product. 

PS Outlook is not a free product.

I agree but isn't that also the case with Windows Live One Care, that it's not a free procuct (at least at this point in time) but that it is going to be replaced with a free product at some point in 2009. The differences between the two being that Outlook has been around a lot longer and is part of Office (some versions at least but not all). Wouldn't a combination of Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Calendar possibly be a free replacement for Outlook?

Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0x800CCC78;  Server Error: 550;  invalid email address

I just had to purchase a new computer because my only old computer died. (Also a Dell--  I bought this new one because it had 4.5 hour battery life and I hope therefore it will not be an overheating monster like my last Dell.)  So here I am stuck with Windows 7 and not too happy about it.  I have dial up.  I have got LIve Mail to download my email but it will not send even though all the right server info has been entered.  It is rejecting my email address which works fine in the download: They are calling it Server Error 550 and Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0x800CCC78. I called my ISP but they were no better at this than me.  Between us we tried a few things.  Then they suggested turning off my firewall to send mail.  I tried turning off some things including the firewall of my McAfee, but it didn't work, makes my queasy and I kinda doubt this is the problem.  I am looking for info but for this first time in my software wrangling life cannot find any online help whatsoever.  Support is non-existent.

Windows 7 is a pain.  Live Mail is horrid.  Give me back my XP!  It's enough make me wonder why I never bought a Mac.

My system has been crashing so much from the horrid window 7,  I suppose I should try to reinstall LIve Mail and/or do a system restore.  Maybe it is just file corruption.

My advice:  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.   Stay with what ever is working on your machine.